Teak decks!

[pmagowan]

Forest grown teak is still available but it is essentially illegal and has had its stamps altered in order to remove it from protected woodland. Probably not a good idea to buy it due to the destruction left in its wake. I think old teak certainly was of a better quality and the same applies to other hard woods like mahogany which are now plantation grown. A lot more of the wood is pith and it is cut in such a way to get maximum revenue with minimum waste rather than originally when the quality of the product was paramount and the waste was a necessary evil. I don't see anything wrong with glassed decks as the plywood substrate is the structural element and being very stable will have virtually no give. In fact, for the ribs a traditional deck is more problematic as the longitudinal timbers will expand at right angles to the grain and put pressure on the structure. It is only taken up by loose caulking which allows some give but also makes the inhabitants wet. With glassed ply there will be essentially no movement and so the boat should remain unchanged throughout its life, The ribs and planking are not thick and so will have minimal effect. My plan would be to attach the new teak with sticky stuff rather than mechanical fixings. This gets the benefit of both worlds with a waterproof substrate and a teak deck with room for expansion and contraction.

 

[martinaskey]

. " The screws have failed but are impossible to remove, the deck leaks all over and the ply is probably rotting. "

If the ply is rotting then this screams 'rip it up and start again' to me.
If the ply is OK the other 2 issues can be solved if there's sufficient thickness of teak left.
I've just completed that task on my 1966 Sparkman & Stephens 36. Bored out hundreds of fastenings, and reseated lower with new caps. Removed all the caulking with a Fien tool, cut the seams deeper and recaulked. Replaced very worn teak by cutting out individual planks and bonding in new. A huge amount of work but successful - no leaks and mostly original teak. I think the quality of modern adhesives means screws can be avoided - I bonded the replacement planks with Sabadeck. But, of course, that might fail in a few years time ! So far so good
M

 

[jamie N]

Interesting posts here for me as I've got teak bonded onto ply, and it leaks dreadfully! I'm entirely removing it next month (at the moment) and replacing it with sapele ply, which I'll non-slip. I'm not sure whether teak actually 'looks right' on a Folkboat either, it's perhaps slightly pretentious maybe. I do realise that if I was doing it properly, it should be with a canvas deck, but that doesn't do it for me either. The coachroof is painted ply as well, which also leaks a bit so that's going the same way. I've budgeted this and it's fairly reasonable on the pocket, but with teak I'd imagine that it'd be enormously expensive.

 

[pmagowan]

Interesting posts here for me as I've got teak bonded onto ply, and it leaks dreadfully! I'm entirely removing it next month (at the moment) and replacing it with sapele ply, which I'll non-slip. I'm not sure whether teak actually 'looks right' on a Folkboat either, it's perhaps slightly pretentious maybe. I do realise that if I was doing it properly, it should be with a canvas deck, but that doesn't do it for me either. The coachroof is painted ply as well, which also leaks a bit so that's going the same way. I've budgeted this and it's fairly reasonable on the pocket, but with teak I'd imagine that it'd be enormously expensive.

I think the reason they fail is the mechanical fixings and with modern adhesives you can get the best of both worlds, a solid waterproof substrate and some pretentious teak on top

 

[jamie N]

I think the reason they fail is the mechanical fixings and with modern adhesives you can get the best of both worlds, a solid waterproof substrate and some pretentious teak on top

Anyone who uses the word 'pretentious' is ....

 

[RupertW]

We only have a little thin teak layer on our cockpit seats and although it would look lovely I would never have it over GRP decks. I have almost burnt my feet any number of times climbing up over the seats and we have had to hose down the cockpit before we can use it.

 

[DownWest]

Apart from being responsible for our company yacht, which had teak decks in good condition, I helped out a guy with a Cheverton Caravelle. Sourced a teak plank at very low cost ( bottom of the heap and long forgotten) Which I had cut into 6 x 40mm strips. Enough to do the complete deck, glued down with epoxy and the seams 'payed' with epoxy graphite mix. Lotta sanding, but great result. He sold it shortly after and thought that the deck got him 25% extra on the price. Which was well over the cost of the deck.

 

[BlueLancer]

With out wishing to hijack the thread, what do the forum think of Iroko for decking as an alternative to teak

 

[tillergirl]

With out wishing to hijack the thread, what do the forum think of Iroko for decking as an alternative to teak

My immediate reaction is that iroko can move a lot and that bare iroko is not as good to look as as bare teak.

 

[jwilson]

I'm quite convinced that the teak fitted to boats bring built today is very different to that used as little as ten years ago. Sustainability is a great thing, but you can't compare the wood from a tree that has grown to a couple of hundred years old in the middle of a rain forest with the wood from a tree a few tens of years old on a plantation.

+1 - I once made a rudder out of about a 90 year old ex-chemistry bench: the top was black, scored and stained but just a millimetre of planing brought up beautiful golden - and rock-hard - teak. It was also very heavy indeed, nothing like the teak you buy now.

My last boat built in the 1960s had proper swept teak screwed-down decks, that after about 25 years of 365 days a year tropical use were at just about at the end of their life.

My current modern plastic bathtub has in the cockpit only about 6mm thick modern soft teak glued down: currently 9 UK summer seasons old and thanks to avoiding harsh scrubbing and covering in winter is still fine.

 

[Eyore]

With out wishing to hijack the thread, what do the forum think of Iroko for decking as an alternative to teak

I have done that many years ago on a Folkboat and it looked great, you would have needed to examine it closely to see it wasn't teak and once you keep it well oiled as its not quite as naturally oily as teak it will be perfect.

Our boat has original 44 year old teak on plywood and is unbelievably watertight Not a drop does it leak and I see no reason why it wont outlast me .